"Train the Mind. The Body Will Follow" - Chess and Basketballl

by Johannes Fischer
6/26/2025 – From July 16 to 20, 16 of the world’s best chess players will compete in Freestyle Chess in Las Vegas. But before that, on July 13, Magnus Carlsen and his colleagues will face top athletes from a different discipline at the "Chesstival": players from the NBA who want to show the grandmasters how good they are at chess. | Photo: Basketball giant Victor Wembanyama with fans playing chess in New York. | Photo: Wembanyama's X account
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The Chesstival kicks off with a "Hand & Head" tournament. In this chess variant, also known as "Hand & Brain," one player announces which piece should move — pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, or king — while the other makes a move with that piece. In this team tournament, the world’s top chess players and basketball stars play together. After that, a solo tournament follows, in which the basketball players compete against each other to find out who among them is the best at chess.

A driving force behind the Chesstival is NBA legend Derrick Rose. Born on October 4, 1988, Rose was named Rookie of the Year in 2009, officially making him the league’s top newcomer. He was selected for the All-Star team three times, and in 2011 — at just 22 years old — he was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). To this day, he remains the youngest MVP in NBA history. However, his career has since been repeatedly interrupted by serious injuries.

Derrick Rose playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers on October 17, 2017 | Photo: Erik Drost (Wikipedia)

Rose is a chess fan. "Chess taught me patience and foresight, and how to stay calm under pressure. I want kids who grew up like I did to be able to experience that too," he says.

Derrick Rose about the NBA tournament

In addition to Rose, Magnus Carlsen has also been announced as a participant. Which other grandmasters and NBA players will take part in the Chesstival has not yet been revealed, but the potential lineup on the basketball side is surprisingly large, as chess is enjoying growing popularity in the NBA. Stars like Victor Wembanyama, Luka Dončić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Draymond Green, and others regularly express their enthusiasm for the game’s strategic depth and how it inspires them.

It’s quite possible that Klay Thompson will also take part in the Chesstival. Thompson, who now plays for the Dallas Mavericks, won four NBA titles with the Golden State Warriors alongside Stephen Curry, and together they transformed modern basketball with their long-range shooting. Their nickname: the Splash Brothers.

But Thompson has also faced setbacks. In the finals of the 2018–19 season, he tore his ACL and was sidelined for a long time. If one is to believe a commercial from the U.S. healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente, chess — which Thompson is known to enjoy — helped him during his recovery.

That commercial, titled "Rematch," reenacts a famous scene from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, in which a knight plays chess against Death. Thompson is shown sitting on a beach in front of a chessboard when a dark figure suddenly appears: Failure, portrayed by Michael K. Williams, best known from the series The Wire, where he played Omar Little, who has long since become a cult figure. Thompson says, "I thought I had defeated you." Failure replies, "Perhaps. But more success sows more doubt." Thompson then makes a move and calmly says, "I still remember how to beat you." The ad ends with the slogan: "Train the Mind. The Body Will Follow."

"Rematch"

Michael K. Williams als Omar in "The Wire"

Freestyle Chess

Freestyle Chess in Las Vegas

Topics: Klay Thompson, Michael K. Williams, The Wire
Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".